Sun visors have been standard equipment on motor vehicles for many years. Generally, these visors are mounted to the upper interior surface of a vehicle by a mounting bracket, which secures the visor to the upper outside corner of the driver/passenger's compartment. Conventional visors may be pivoted from a retracted storage position overlaying the headliner of a vehicle to a lowered use position overlaying the windshield. In addition, the visor may be pivotable between the lowered use position overlaying the windshield to a side position overlaying an adjacent side window.
Traditionally, visors have been pivotable in a first plane about the pivot shaft between the retracted storage position and the extended use position. Visors have also been pivotable about a second plane between the windshield and the adjacent side window by pivoting with the pivot shaft relative to the mounting bracket. Examples of this approach to pivoting in a first and second plane may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,825,926, 4,148,519, 4,610,477, 4,489,974, 4,925,233, 5,011,211 and 5,011,213.
An alternative approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,875 to Dow which utilizes a conventional mounting bracket having a pivot shaft which is pivoted in a first plane between the windshield and an adjacent side window. A pivot member is attached to the pivot shaft. The pivot member has a second pivot shaft support rod about which the visor may be pivoted in a second plane between the retracted storage position and the extended use position. The pivot member also pivots in a third plane about an axis generally perpendicular to the support rod. In this configuration, a pivot member having an additional support rod is attached to an existing mounting bracket having a pivot shaft to provide an additional degree of freedom about which the visor may rotate.
The present invention is directed to improving known mounting systems for use with vehicle visors.